Denise (1998) : Lisa McCune with Denise Drysdale

Denise: Last night at the 1998 TV Week Logies Awards the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television went to Seven's very own golden girl, we just love her, please welcome two-time Gold Logie winner, Lisa McCune.

(The band plays, the audience cheers, Lisa comes out and sits down.)

Denise: Hello!

Lisa: Hello, congratulations on your new show — and I've got, got a bit of a sexy band.

Denise: I know. We've done that on purpose.

Lisa: Very exciting.

Denise: (laughs) Um, now listen, how do you, (laughs) how do you — I just meant that the sex appeal would be sadly lacking from this side. Now listen, how did you feel last night? 'Cause I believe that you, you didn't think that you were going to get it.

Lisa: No, my wildest dreams I didn't. I didn't think I would, and I, the first one was a shocker, we were really hoping that we'd get the one for the best series.

Denise: You won everything!

Lisa: Which was fantastic.

Denise: Yeah.

Lisa: And then the other ones were, you know, like icing on the cake. And, I, with the Gold I got the shock of my life. I thought, I went, I remember going, I remember seeing my hands flying forward and thinking, "Do I crawl under the table or go up" and luckily my boyfriend Tim just kinda gave me a nudge and went, "Go!"

Denise: It was fantastic.

Lisa: But er, yeah it was terrific.

Denise: You've just won so many awards though, haven't you. You'll get the Nobel Peace Prize next! (Audience laughs)

Lisa: (laughs) Ohh...

Denise: She will!

Lisa: (laughs) I don't know about that. You wouldn't say that if you saw me at home.

Denise: Now is it true that you were up at 7.30 this morning? Or they woke you up at six or something?

Lisa: Well yeah, I was up about quarter past six, send the boy off to work, and ah, and then start getting —

Denise: What's he do?

Lisa: He works, ahh, he does, he works in the film industry, and he's got a big truck, I like him 'cause he's got a truck. Girls gotta like the boys with trucks.

Denise: Does he own the truck?

Lisa: He owns the truck. It's a big truck.

Denise: Oh! What a find! (Audience laughs)

Lisa: I know. And he gave, the first present he ever gave me was a drill. (Audience laughs!)

Denise: It must be love. (Both laugh) So he went off to work and then you started work at 7.30.

Lisa: Yeah early this morning.

Denise: Yeah?

Lisa: But it was good, it was actually good to get out of the house and, and not think about it, because it's an incredibly nerve-wracking experience when you think how many people are watching, and when you're standing in front of your peers, and I think that's the stressful part, standing in front of the people you so respect, and then you think, "Oh gosh!"

Denise: But the whole cast must have felt absolutely terrific today, because what did you get, you got...?

Lisa: Ahh we got five.

Denise: Five altogether, which just goes to show. And it's so consistently, like this has been going for how long?

Lisa: Ahh, this is our fifth year, at the beginning of our fifth year, which is, it's really nice because we're kind of like the first of that new wave of, of Australian drama in the 90s, which is, it's really kind of lovely.

Denise: Do you still look forward to going to work?

Lisa: Yeah I do, it's a really lovely environment, and ahh, you know, the crew's great, and we have a great time doing it, so it's um, it's really well worth coming to work every day.

Denise: Do you do a lot of outside things?

Lisa: Oh I did, I did a um, I went and did a musical at the MTC, Melbourne, that's the Melbourne Theatre Company over ahh, over the summer, and I did one the year before as well. Basically my year, the last two years have nearly been exactly the same. They've been like, nothing has changed. But er...

Denise: You haven't had a break then...

Lisa: I had — no I haven't had a break, I had Easter off, which was nice.

Denise: Oh Easter's only three or four days.

Lisa: Yeah.

Denise: And you would've been in here Good Friday, you were.

Lisa: No I wasn't here for Good Friday, I went home to Perth.

Denise: Home to Perth. (Waves at the camera)

Lisa: Yes, hi Perth. (Waves) And so I went...

Denise: Hello to everybody.

Lisa: ... it was beautiful and the, and the weather was lovely, and so that's when I had my break.

Denise: So you had a proper break.

Lisa: Yep and this Christmas I'm going to go.

Denise: Is it true that people come up to you and ask you police questions? I mean what's the strangest thing someone's asked you?

Lisa: The weirdest one was when someone came to me, and we were on location for Blue Heelers in Williamstown and someone said, they came running up to me and said, "Where's the police station?" And I went, "Oh, oh, ohh, which way", I wasn't really too sure which way. And when you're standing there in a police uniform, and the show's only been going for six months, you look like a bit of a dill. (Denise & audience laughs) But ahh, but yeah, I mean we've been pretty lucky, most people kind of, can distinguish between reality and ahh, and Blue Heelers.

Denise: So you think if you got pregnant on the show they wouldn't start knitting booties.

Lisa: Oh they might. (Laughs)

Denise: But they do, they do that with soapies, people get pregnant and then they go start knitting stuff and sending it in 'cause they really think they're going to have the baby.

Lisa: Gosh, I wonder what it'd be like, I wonder what they'd do with me if I got pregnant, they'd probably have to, I mean I can't imagine Maggie and PJ trying to have a polite relationship. (Laughs, along with audience) Wouldn't be very nice.

Denise: And tell me, you mentioned locations, are the, how are the conditions? 'Cause everything that I've ever done on locations, I've either been boiling hot or freezing.

Lisa: Well usually in Melbourne in Winter in Werribee, it is flat and it's near the water, and it is freezing. It is, it's really cold, you end up kind of being packed with heat packs to try and keep your skin smooth, because it looks like you got really bad acne when you get goosebumps all over your face.

Denise: Ohh.

Lisa: But er, so it's pretty cold, but it's good, you know.

Denise: Thermal — you wear pants in this thing, oh you could wear thermals.

Lisa: Oh yeah I have about three pairs of thermals, you can get these great ones from a place called Katmandu, which are like the, the hiking ones.

Denise: Oh, I wore those when we went to Nepal.

Lisa: They're fantastic.

Denise: They are.

Lisa: Really good, and we just kind of like, have two layers of those on, and two, kinda two tops and thick mountain socks and we're right.

Denise: So, are you going to celebrate tonight? What are you going to do?

Lisa: Well, my, Tim, my boyfriend, we got home last night and he was saying, "You know, let's go, let's go on the verandah and have a party," and I said, "No, I really just want to go to bed", and er, he said, "Tomorrow night", and I said, "Oh, maybe Wednesday night", so we'll see how we go.

Denise: Well we're just absolutely thrilled, two Gold Logies, and ... I'm not sure what this, I think it's a, little chockie waiting for you. (Lifts a lid on the table to reveal a chocolate Logie)

Lisa: Oh how fantastic! Now how would someone make that, Tonia Todman would be hard pushed to make that. (Audience laughs) That's fantastic!

Denise: ... Last night at the Logies was great. That's for you to take home.

Lisa: Oh thank you very much.

Denise: So if you're not going to celebrate or doing anything you can eat that in front of the telly tonight.

Lisa: And also a little bird told me, that I am actually, um, that you had one in '74 and '75, Gold Logies.